Brown Rice Fritters Parmesan-Style

Photo: Jenny Richards

Ingredients

2 cups cooked short-grain brown rice (this should be fairly dry in consistency, but not dried out - if you pull

1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano (I'll admit to using a 4-cheese mix here)

1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano (I used dried from our garden - Greek oregano, not Mexican)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshbly ground black pepper

1 beaten egg

Preparation

Mix the all of ingredients together - it should be dry but sticky.

Using a cookie cutter as a guide (or you can use your hands), form 8 fritters on a sheet pan.

Place the sheet pan in the freezer for 30+ minutes to allow the cakes to firm up.

Remove from the freezer and dredge in flour.

Heat 1/4 c olive oil and 2 - 3 T butter in a skillet until the butter finishes foaming.

Add the rice cakes, working in batches, and turn only once each. You can cook each side for about 2 minutes until they're brown. Turning more than once makes them fall apart. Don't worry about cooking the sides.

Set the cakes aside and pour out the grease from the frying pan.

To that same oven-proof skillet, add tomato sauce (we had jazzed it up a bit with some herbs, some cooked onions and garlic, and pappadew peppers) and let it come up to heat.

In went the fritters, we put a spoon of tomato sauce on those, and then a nice slice of mozzarella.

The whole thing went into the oven at 415 degrees to melt, turn up the heat to broil for some nice color.

Tools

Place your ad here
Loading...

About

Out of the May 2008 Saveur came an inspiration for an Italian-style comfort dinner...brown rice fritters topped with melted mozzarella, swimming in tangy tomato sauce. This is a great vegetarian dish, for those who still eat eggs and cheese.

This is done in two stages - you make the brown rice fritters first, and then you add the accompanying ingredients to make it Parmesan-style.